Translating DL1-15 to 4E - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Translating DL1-15 to 4E

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
thecasualoblivion
Jun 07, 2008 21:47:00 We have been running these modules in 2E AD&D, but we've caught the 4E bug and are translating the game to 4E. Its fairly easy to translate monsters and use the xp budgets to create encounters. This actually takes a good deal less work than translating this to 3.5E would be. We currently are playing Dragons of Dreams(we last completed Dragons of Ice, and we're alternating between the two paths). I've decided to put everybody at level 9 in 4E for this. We have a mix of old and new characters(we were running two nine character parties, with the Heroes of the Lance complimented by a number of our own creations), though since we are running 4E now I'm going to move away from nine character parties. You can do that with 2E since combat is really fast, but while I think combat will run faster in 4E when we get the hang of it(faster than 3E), it won't be as fast as AD&D. We have this many characters mostly because this is a pickup game, and on any given session only half of us are present. I'm going to rule that only six of the nine will be "active" during any given combat. If we have more than six players attend(I run a PC), I'll just add to the encounter on the fly, because this is easy to do in 4E.

We've only translated the characters in Dragons of Dreams so far. We currently have:

Tanis--Warlord(cha) multiclassed into Ranger
Caramon--Fighter
Flint------Fighter(Goldmoon and Riverwind traded places with him, for party balance reasons)
Raistlin---Wizard, and its nice to have Raistlin be reasonably sturdy with 10 Con
Tika------Rogue multiclassed into Fighter
Zedar----Kagonesti(Elf) Ranger(TWF who can also shoot). He previously was a 2E Kagonesti Ranger
Ivy-------Silvanesti(Elf) Cleric(Melee/Laser hybrid). Previously was a Silvanesti Fighter/Cleric
Dorian----Kender(Halfling) Rogue multiclassed into Paladin. Previously was a Kender Cleric/Thief.
Devlen----Ogre Warlock(Star)(based on Tiefling stats)--Previously was Irda(I would run Irda off of the Doppleganger stats), but thanks to committing murder under the eyes of Paladine, he was cursed to lose his Irda heritage. Tiefling seems a good fit for the character and for abilities at this point. He previously was a Fighter/Mage, but works very well as a Warlock thematically.

We also have two characters from the other path who were met in the dream:

Laurana---Qualinesti(Elf*) Warlord, which is a perfect fit story-wise. I've messed with Laurana and the stats she is based on to make her optimized for what she does. I made her racial mods be +2 Dex, +2 Cha(seems the logical choice for Qualinesti), and gave her the equivalent of Weapon Finesse as long as she wields a light blade.
Gilthanas--Qualinesti(Eladrin) Wizard multiclassed into Fighter. I've given Gilthanas some generous stats to be able to function as a "multiclass" from the Wizard primary. Laurana's team needed a controller, and he looks great for Wizard of the Spiral Tower. Also let him be Eladrin since he was in the Wizard class.

Also in that team and how we are envisioning them, though we haven't built them:

Goldmoon---Human Cleric(Laser)
Riverwind---Human Ranger(I'm thinking Archer actually, as Riverwind was never a TWF)
Tasselhoff--Kender Rogue, and I'm ruling that the Kender race can treat the Hoopak as a Light Blade for powers(Dorian always used a short sword).
Sturm--Human Fighter multiclassed into Paladin(though he's taking a Fighter paragon path).
Bergond--Dwarf Paladin, previously was a Dwarf Fighter/Cleric
Keomin--Qualinesti(Elf*) Warlock(fey)--given him the +2Dex/Cha Laurana got. He was previously a Mage/Thief, so Warlock is a great fit here.
Cathan--Half-Elf Fighter multiclassed into Paladin(taking a Paladin paragon path), previously was a Half-Elf Knight of Solamnia
#2
cam_banks
Jun 07, 2008 22:36:22 Tanis should be the other way around: ranger multiclassing into warlord. If he's a warlord first, he won't get proficiency in military ranged weapons, which is what a longbow is. Take the Student of Battle MC feat, giving him Diplomacy, and grab a Fighter At Will power as part of your half-elf traits (Sure Strike's a good one.)

I'm assuming you never took a look at our 3rd edition Dragonlance material? We converted DL1-14 already as Dragons of Autumn, Dragons of Winter, and Dragons of Spring, and it might be easier to convert from there.

Cheers,
Cam
#3
thecasualoblivion
Jun 07, 2008 23:24:09
Tanis should be the other way around: ranger multiclassing into warlord. If he's a warlord first, he won't get proficiency in military ranged weapons, which is what a longbow is. Take the Student of Battle MC feat, giving him Diplomacy, and grab a Fighter At Will power as part of your half-elf traits (Sure Strike's a good one.)

I'm assuming you never took a look at our 3rd edition Dragonlance material? We converted DL1-14 already as Dragons of Autumn, Dragons of Winter, and Dragons of Spring, and it might be easier to convert from there.

Cheers,
Cam

The difference with Tanis is just a single feat for proficiency in the Longbow. I'm not taking every multiclass feat with him to be honest. I feel his concept works best with the Warlord as primary, with the Ranger just for flavor. He was the guy everybody looked up to and followed, and was just as much about being a swordsman as an archer. We're also leaning towards the Sword Marshal paragon path.

As for the game itself, it is pretty much easy to convert on the fly. I put together stats for Draconians using the DM custom creature rules in about 10 minutes, and am pretty happy with them and feel they are just about as interesting as what is in the monster manual. Most encounters can be put together in minimal time using 4E's encounter building rules. I'm finding 4E a solid system for making things up as you go along.
#4
cam_banks
Jun 08, 2008 9:36:48
The difference with Tanis is just a single feat for proficiency in the Longbow. I'm not taking every multiclass feat with him to be honest. I feel his concept works best with the Warlord as primary, with the Ranger just for flavor. He was the guy everybody looked up to and followed, and was just as much about being a swordsman as an archer. We're also leaning towards the Sword Marshal paragon path.

You raise good points. This was something I had agonized over for a while; Tanis is my favorite character in the Chronicles. Laurana seems like the more archetypal warlord character to my mind, if only for the cheerleader aspects early on, while Tanis seems as if he was only reluctantly leading everybody around. Still, given the number of feats that 4e characters get, either path would work out well enough.

Cheers,
Cam
#5
katahn
Jun 16, 2008 14:17:31 I'm not crazy about converting the Qualinesti into both elves and eladrin, it seems to me that the decision on whether a DL elf race is one or the other should be done on a nation-by-nation basis. Going half-and-half a nation into both elf and eladrin just seems to cheapen the meaning of the race, sort of reducing it to a selectable background feature.

Within the context of the DL setting and working off of years-old-memory of running the original module series...

Qualinesti/Sylvanesti - Eladrin
Kagonesti - Elf

Tanis as a warlord makes perfect sense, and dropping a feat into learning to use a bow is really all he needs. In the books he didn't do a whole lot of tracking beyond what a healthy level of nature skill wouldn't justify.

Dragonlance didn't have anything remotely like a warlock in the 4e sense. So including warlocks would need an explanation for how the society of wizards reacts and relates to them. They don't get their arcane power from study, but from making bargains with powerful extradimensional entities, I can't imagine that would make the wizards particularly comfortable.
#6
cam_banks
Jun 16, 2008 15:42:41
Dragonlance didn't have anything remotely like a warlock in the 4e sense. So including warlocks would need an explanation for how the society of wizards reacts and relates to them. They don't get their arcane power from study, but from making bargains with powerful extradimensional entities, I can't imagine that would make the wizards particularly comfortable.

Warlocks = Knights of the Thorn. Takhisis was their patron; she grants them their warlock powers. Very simple. Ariakas, the prototype of the Thorn Knights (and father of the Dark Knight founder, Ariakan) is a warlock, as is the Red Dragonarmy Highmaster Rivven Cairn, from my novel The Sellsword.

Cheers,
Cam
#7
myriddian
Jun 17, 2008 6:32:10 Bram DiThon is a perfect Fey pact warlock.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 thecasualoblivion Jun 07, 2008 21:47:00	We have been running these modules in 2E AD&D, but we've caught the 4E bug and are translating the game to 4E. Its fairly easy to translate monsters and use the xp budgets to create encounters. This actually takes a good deal less work than translating this to 3.5E would be. We currently are playing Dragons of Dreams(we last completed Dragons of Ice, and we're alternating between the two paths). I've decided to put everybody at level 9 in 4E for this. We have a mix of old and new characters(we were running two nine character parties, with the Heroes of the Lance complimented by a number of our own creations), though since we are running 4E now I'm going to move away from nine character parties. You can do that with 2E since combat is really fast, but while I think combat will run faster in 4E when we get the hang of it(faster than 3E), it won't be as fast as AD&D. We have this many characters mostly because this is a pickup game, and on any given session only half of us are present. I'm going to rule that only six of the nine will be "active" during any given combat. If we have more than six players attend(I run a PC), I'll just add to the encounter on the fly, because this is easy to do in 4E. We've only translated the characters in Dragons of Dreams so far. We currently have: Tanis--Warlord(cha) multiclassed into Ranger Caramon--Fighter Flint------Fighter(Goldmoon and Riverwind traded places with him, for party balance reasons) Raistlin---Wizard, and its nice to have Raistlin be reasonably sturdy with 10 Con Tika------Rogue multiclassed into Fighter Zedar----Kagonesti(Elf) Ranger(TWF who can also shoot). He previously was a 2E Kagonesti Ranger Ivy-------Silvanesti(Elf) Cleric(Melee/Laser hybrid). Previously was a Silvanesti Fighter/Cleric Dorian----Kender(Halfling) Rogue multiclassed into Paladin. Previously was a Kender Cleric/Thief. Devlen----Ogre Warlock(Star)(based on Tiefling stats)--Previously was Irda(I would run Irda off of the Doppleganger stats), but thanks to committing murder under the eyes of Paladine, he was cursed to lose his Irda heritage. Tiefling seems a good fit for the character and for abilities at this point. He previously was a Fighter/Mage, but works very well as a Warlock thematically. We also have two characters from the other path who were met in the dream: Laurana---Qualinesti(Elf) Warlord, which is a perfect fit story-wise. I've messed with Laurana and the stats she is based on to make her optimized for what she does. I made her racial mods be +2 Dex, +2 Cha(seems the logical choice for Qualinesti), and gave her the equivalent of Weapon Finesse as long as she wields a light blade. Gilthanas--Qualinesti(Eladrin) Wizard multiclassed into Fighter. I've given Gilthanas some generous stats to be able to function as a "multiclass" from the Wizard primary. Laurana's team needed a controller, and he looks great for Wizard of the Spiral Tower. Also let him be Eladrin since he was in the Wizard class. Also in that team and how we are envisioning them, though we haven't built them: Goldmoon---Human Cleric(Laser) Riverwind---Human Ranger(I'm thinking Archer actually, as Riverwind was never a TWF) Tasselhoff--Kender Rogue, and I'm ruling that the Kender race can treat the Hoopak as a Light Blade for powers(Dorian always used a short sword). Sturm--Human Fighter multiclassed into Paladin(though he's taking a Fighter paragon path). Bergond--Dwarf Paladin, previously was a Dwarf Fighter/Cleric Keomin--Qualinesti(Elf) Warlock(fey)--given him the +2Dex/Cha Laurana got. He was previously a Mage/Thief, so Warlock is a great fit here. Cathan--Half-Elf Fighter multiclassed into Paladin(taking a Paladin paragon path), previously was a Half-Elf Knight of Solamnia
#2 cam_banks Jun 07, 2008 22:36:22	Tanis should be the other way around: ranger multiclassing into warlord. If he's a warlord first, he won't get proficiency in military ranged weapons, which is what a longbow is. Take the Student of Battle MC feat, giving him Diplomacy, and grab a Fighter At Will power as part of your half-elf traits (Sure Strike's a good one.) I'm assuming you never took a look at our 3rd edition Dragonlance material? We converted DL1-14 already as Dragons of Autumn, Dragons of Winter, and Dragons of Spring, and it might be easier to convert from there. Cheers, Cam
#3 thecasualoblivion Jun 07, 2008 23:24:09	Tanis should be the other way around: ranger multiclassing into warlord. If he's a warlord first, he won't get proficiency in military ranged weapons, which is what a longbow is. Take the Student of Battle MC feat, giving him Diplomacy, and grab a Fighter At Will power as part of your half-elf traits (Sure Strike's a good one.) I'm assuming you never took a look at our 3rd edition Dragonlance material? We converted DL1-14 already as Dragons of Autumn, Dragons of Winter, and Dragons of Spring, and it might be easier to convert from there. Cheers, Cam The difference with Tanis is just a single feat for proficiency in the Longbow. I'm not taking every multiclass feat with him to be honest. I feel his concept works best with the Warlord as primary, with the Ranger just for flavor. He was the guy everybody looked up to and followed, and was just as much about being a swordsman as an archer. We're also leaning towards the Sword Marshal paragon path. As for the game itself, it is pretty much easy to convert on the fly. I put together stats for Draconians using the DM custom creature rules in about 10 minutes, and am pretty happy with them and feel they are just about as interesting as what is in the monster manual. Most encounters can be put together in minimal time using 4E's encounter building rules. I'm finding 4E a solid system for making things up as you go along.
#4 cam_banks Jun 08, 2008 9:36:48	The difference with Tanis is just a single feat for proficiency in the Longbow. I'm not taking every multiclass feat with him to be honest. I feel his concept works best with the Warlord as primary, with the Ranger just for flavor. He was the guy everybody looked up to and followed, and was just as much about being a swordsman as an archer. We're also leaning towards the Sword Marshal paragon path. You raise good points. This was something I had agonized over for a while; Tanis is my favorite character in the Chronicles. Laurana seems like the more archetypal warlord character to my mind, if only for the cheerleader aspects early on, while Tanis seems as if he was only reluctantly leading everybody around. Still, given the number of feats that 4e characters get, either path would work out well enough. Cheers, Cam
#5 katahn Jun 16, 2008 14:17:31	I'm not crazy about converting the Qualinesti into both elves and eladrin, it seems to me that the decision on whether a DL elf race is one or the other should be done on a nation-by-nation basis. Going half-and-half a nation into both elf and eladrin just seems to cheapen the meaning of the race, sort of reducing it to a selectable background feature. Within the context of the DL setting and working off of years-old-memory of running the original module series... Qualinesti/Sylvanesti - Eladrin Kagonesti - Elf Tanis as a warlord makes perfect sense, and dropping a feat into learning to use a bow is really all he needs. In the books he didn't do a whole lot of tracking beyond what a healthy level of nature skill wouldn't justify. Dragonlance didn't have anything remotely like a warlock in the 4e sense. So including warlocks would need an explanation for how the society of wizards reacts and relates to them. They don't get their arcane power from study, but from making bargains with powerful extradimensional entities, I can't imagine that would make the wizards particularly comfortable.
#6 cam_banks Jun 16, 2008 15:42:41	Dragonlance didn't have anything remotely like a warlock in the 4e sense. So including warlocks would need an explanation for how the society of wizards reacts and relates to them. They don't get their arcane power from study, but from making bargains with powerful extradimensional entities, I can't imagine that would make the wizards particularly comfortable. Warlocks = Knights of the Thorn. Takhisis was their patron; she grants them their warlock powers. Very simple. Ariakas, the prototype of the Thorn Knights (and father of the Dark Knight founder, Ariakan) is a warlock, as is the Red Dragonarmy Highmaster Rivven Cairn, from my novel The Sellsword. Cheers, Cam
#7 myriddian Jun 17, 2008 6:32:10	Bram DiThon is a perfect Fey pact warlock.